Article:
INSPIRATION HISTORY - A FOUNTAIN PEN FOR HAMBURG MERCHANTS
Typical tools used by a 16th-century merchant included ink, paper, and a quill pen, as well as a gold scale for quickly checking coins and recording the counted results. If business was good, money was used to buy fine table silver, which was kept in large wooden cupboards and only brought out on special occasions. In difficult times, the crockery could be melted down again and thus served as a crisis-proof nest egg.
Rare woods and precious metals were then, as now, coveted and valuable commodities. Their further processing and refinement is left to specialists, craftsmen and artists - masters of their trade. In these hands, small pieces of jewelery and status symbols are created, which merchants like to use to underline their status, their success and their seriousness.
Hamburg merchants are said to not show off their wealth with ostentatious pomp. Honesty, transparency and Hanseatic understatement are the virtues of solid action. "A handshake is a handshake" is something the Hanseatic people are proud of to this day.
The striving of the Hanseatic League for an ideal.
The appreciation of material, craftsmanship and tradition.
Solidity paired with the need for something beautiful.
Solid gold and silver as a functional investment.
Luxury that is not excessive and fulfills a purpose.
These points inspired me to produce a fountain pen that, due to its materiality and reserved shape, combines many of these historical approaches. In addition, there is the idea of sustainability, which has become so much more important today. That's why my objects are only available on request.
I believe that crafting is the only truly substantial way of creating luxury goods. Industrial mass production can't keep up here - no matter what their expensive glossy advertising promises. Man has always liked to surround himself with beautiful things. However, these can only contain real value if it is clear who made them, where and how and what materials were used.
LONGCAP fountain pen made of mahogany and solid 935 silver with 18K/750 yellow gold nib, partially rhodium-plated
14. September to November 20, 2022
The II. Biennial of Applied Arts in the Museum of Hamburg History coincides with the 100th anniversary of the museum. Reason enough for Hamburg's artisans to pay their respects to the house on Holstenwall and to look back at the city's eventful past. Specifically, the artists chose a specific exhibit or event from the museum's permanent exhibition, which they dealt with intensively in order to reflect on it in their own work. The exhibition shows the current works of applied art in direct relation to the objects in the collection and leads through all departments. This is how history and the present meet again and again and develop surprising dialogues.
